[megadude]

And Purdue, a team I have a few connections to, has been bounced out as a 1 seed. The second time ever. So often a highly ranked team and a team I like to see do well just keeps flopping out of the tournament. Last year as a 3 seed to the 15 seed. Even worse this year.

And they have potential POY in Zac Edey, from Toronto. Yet he only took 11 shots and hit 7 of those. This is like when Wiggins at Kansas got bounced from the 2014 tournament in round 2 as a 3 seed. He's your best player and he only took 6 shots. Only hit 1 but he was taking long range jumpers, which is not his game. Dude was parked on the perimeter for some reason and the coach needed to force him to drive inside and play his game. If not, then bench him.

Bill Self of Kansas has won two natties, including last year. He's an all time great. Matt Painter of Purdue is seen as a great coach too. But at what point does the coach take blame for star players taking such few shots or bad shots? When does a coach have to force his team to dump the ball into the best player and force the best player to be more agressive or you're sitting on the bench? This is what I don't understand. If they can't do that then surely professional coaching is bullshit and anyone can do it? At least the in-game management part?

Zac Edey is the most dominant player in the game this year. He was their best player tonight. Even if he didn't feel like shooting more, the coach has to force him to. Whether he makes the shots or not, he's bound to get fouled. He did shoot 10 FTs tonight and made 7, which is impressive for a big man. If his FG and FT percentages tonight aren't a hint that you need to force the issue as a coach then I don't know what is. I just don't understand how this doesn't click with high level coaches with decades of experience.

And if you follow college sports, you'll know that the conference your team particpates in is a big deal. Fans take pride in that. At least for teams that geographically and culturally fit (last 15 years there has been conf. realignments due to money that make no sense for some teams). The Big Ten, of which Purdue is a part of, have not won a NC since 2000. And in football, they've only won twice from 2002 onwards, both by Ohio State. This is the richest conference but they have had a pretty embarrassing record the past couple of decades.

At least in basketball they were a runner up seven times (six different teams) since they last won, which is like Canada's NHL teams in the last 28 years or whatever it is. I think six finalists?

The only thing more embarrassing is the PAC 12, which is another of the few major conferences. They haven't won since 1997 and only had two finalists since then. And zero NCs in football since they last won in 2003.